Bob Chance might not be a household name in Hudson County, but the former Major Leaguer’s road to professional baseball started in Jersey City.

Chance, who forged a six-year career in the big leagues after a brief stint with the Jersey City Cubs of the city’s Twilight League, died Thursday in Charleston, W. Va. He was 73.

The Statesboro, Ga., native took a considerable step toward a life in professional baseball when Cubs manager Herman Mincey heard about the player from a friend living in Statesboro. Mincey paid for Chance’s transportation to Jersey City, put him up in his house, fed him and got him a job at a painting firm at Communipaw Avenue and Monitor Street.

Opportunity knocked when Mincey contacted a scout for the San Francisco Giants. Chance signed with the organization in 1961 and made his Major League debut in 1963 as a member of the Cleveland Indians.

The left-handed first baseman enjoyed the most productive year of his career in 1964 with the Indians when he hit .279, 14 homers and 79 RBI. He would go on to play for the Washington Senators and the California Angels before retiring after the 1969 season.

“I think that was so overwhelming for him. It happened so quick. I remember him saying he loved the game so much he would play for nothing. The pay wasn’t so great.”

Chance finished his six-year career with 24 homeruns, 112 RBI and a .261 average. Among his minor league accolades was winning the Triple Crown with AA Charleston in 1963, the same year he was named the Most Valuable Player of the Eastern League.

“I played with and against so many great athletes,” Chance told The Jersey Journal in 2006. “It was a pleasure just to be around them. Each team had stars. The Yankees had Mickey Mantle and Joe Pepitone and then you go up to Boston and they had Carl Yastrzemski. It was great to get on the field with those guys.”

After retiring from baseball, Chance moved back to Charleston, where he worked for the city’s recreation department and then later worked for the West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Administration. In recent years, he worked as a driver for a Holiday Inn in West Virginia.

“My dad was kind of a quiet man,” said his son, Anthony Chance, who played minor league baseball for 19 years in the farm systems of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Indians and Texas Rangers. “He really didn’t talk a lot about his accolades or him playing baseball unless you really probed him about it.”

Among Chance’s greatest honors came recently, when he reunited with former teammates at a pair of Cleveland Indians reunions.

“He kept a close tab on baseball, he kept a close tab on the Indians," said Anthony Chance.

"That was his team.”

“That was near and dear to him. The camaraderie that he had with some of the older teammates. He really looked forward to going back and sitting down with those teammates.”

Chance is survived by four children, Cecil, Samantha, Anthony and Marlow; and six grandchildren.